US DONATES C130H AIRCRAFT TO BDF
Segokgo confident BW airspace protected
AFTER many years of concerns over depleted aircraft fleet and fears that the country was vulnerable to an attack through its airspace, the Commander of Botswana Defence Force, Lieutenant General Placid Segokgo, has expressed confidence that the country’s airspace is now protected.
Addressing a senior officers’ strategic conference at Glenn Valley in Gaborone on Wednesday, the commander said that the army has acquired equipment to fully protect itself from its adversaries.
“The acquisition of specific military equipment, which adds to the much-needed fire power, lethality, persistence, range, agility and mobility in combat operations and enhances our ability to effectively project force against our potential adversaries while also achieving the critical requirements for force protection, is also a significant milestone. Such critical requirements on force protection have been challenged in recent deployments in the Republic of Mozambique,” he said.
Segokgo also noted that the morale of BDF troops has also been boosted by the acquisition of these modern technologies that have the potential to disable the enemy who targets individual soldiers using improvised explosives.
He welcomed the 2018 amendment of the BDF Act to increase retirement age by two years, which means that soldiers will serve the country longer while their net replacement was increased by a minimum of 10 percent.
Concerning the deployment of BDF troops to Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado Province alongside SADC troops, Segokgo said, “This deployment not only served Botswana’s strategic interests domestically, regionally, continentally and globally, but it served the BDF’S combat readiness objectives by presenting live contested environments for us to govern our soldiers, the muchneeded tactical and operational experience, to test and adjust our TTPS and doctrines. The organisation, as well as Botswana, has drawn huge lessons from the operation that will inform future force developments and deployments.”
Earlier on, when officially opening the gathering, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi said the United States government has donated a C130H aircraft to Botswana to complement its efforts to secure and defend its boundaries and airspace.
“Recently, the U.S. government offered us excess defence articles in the form of a C130H aircraft, at no cost to Botswana. For this, I want to thank them, because instead of selling to us used equipment like others, they opted to partner with us in preservation of global peace,” said Masisi.
In conclusion, Masisi said he has issued a directive for BDF pension denominator to be improved from n/600 to n/375, which has been outstanding since 1998 when the government improved pensions for the public service.